Outdoor Organic Balcony Stealth Quadlining: White Widow/Gorgonzola

:bravo::high-five::circle-of-love::goof:
Terrific photos, Stung.
Verrry pretty!
:yahoo::slide::yahoo:
Stunger said:
wife would go nuts
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Does she have any idea how well you’ve done?
You’ll be able to weigh them soon and give her a compelling figure. 6 hundy an ounce for primo down our way.
:welldone:
 
Yeay - great harvest, Stunger! Well done! Congrats to a great grow.

Stunger said:
I thought I could avoid the kicking and screaming that @DonkeyDick has to go thru when his girls get the chop. But when the end came it wasn't elegant, I had intended to cut the plants out whole with some of their root balls intact that I could wash off in a bucket of water I had at the ready, in a whole plant dry like @nickeluring does in his excellent's grows . Altho I used a knife to try and cut them out I couldn't get thru the thick tap roots, and I didn't want to be caught on the balcony having a tug of war trying to uproot them without making a spectacle and covering myself with dirt which the wife would go nuts about if I bought back thru the house. So I just cut them off at the base after first untethering all the Quadlining/LST wires from the plants.
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I use a long serrated bread knife when it's time to chop. I put it on a downwards/inwards angle from the sides of the pot and cut by sawing 4 times in under the centre of the plant. I cut as deep as I can to get as much root as possible. I get like an upside down pyramid of root mass and coco coming up with the plant. Ideally you want the whole tap root intact.
Sounds more complicated than it is I think. Do you understand what I mean? I can take a picture during next harvest.
 
nickeluring said:
Yeay - great harvest, Stunger! Well done! Congrats to a great grow.

I use a long serrated bread knife when it's time to chop. I put it on a downwards/inwards angle from the sides of the pot and cut by sawing 4 times in under the centre of the plant. I cut as deep as I can to get as much root as possible. I get like an upside down pyramid of root mass and coco coming up with the plant. Ideally you want the whole tap root intact.
Sounds more complicated than it is I think. Do you understand what I mean? I can take a picture during next harvest.
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That is what I was trying to do. I had shut myself out on the balcony with the tools I thought I'd need, it was an old fishing knife against the strong roots of plants that had been growing for 7 months (the 2 quad girls). I would have really like to have got a good look at the root mass. What you say with using a serrated bread knife makes a lot of sense, that would have worked well. I never imagined harvest time would come in the middle of a lockdown. However, I got it done without blowing my stealth cover to the neighbors, and managed to discretely do so without smelling the house out or making a mess inside, all done and completed while the wife and daughter went for a lockdown walk. Phew! :surf:
 
Haha, well done, Stunger!
The best part of chopping/drying the plants like this is the trimming is so much easier and quicker if done when plant has dried. For most of the time I just use my hands to remove leaves and stuff for the final trim before jarring. Of course I have to use the trimmer too, but not very much. Also, you have a wider span of when you can do the trimming. When doing wet trimming, you have to do it when you harvest and it's not that flexible. It makes the harvest days more stressful I reckon.
 
nickeluring said:
Haha, well done, Stunger!
The best part of chopping/drying the plants like this is the trimming is so much easier and quicker if done when plant has dried. For most of the time I just use my hands to remove leaves and stuff for the final trim before jarring. Of course I have to use the trimmer too, but not very much. Also, you have a wider span of when you can do the trimming. When doing wet trimming, you have to do it when you harvest and it's not that flexible. It makes the harvest days more stressful I reckon.
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When drying reasonable sized whole plants would that take in the range of 2 - 3 weeks?

I will keep an eye an old serrated break knife to put aside for the next time.
 
Stunger said:
When drying reasonable sized whole plants would that take in the range of 2 - 3 weeks?

I will keep an eye an old serrated break knife to put aside for the next time.
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It depends a bit on your temps and rH and plant size. I currently have around 23 degrees C, and about 60% rH. My plants take about 2-3 weeks before they're ready for the jars. And by that time they are smooth and tasty to smoke. I still do some jar curing, but it's not really needed. I use the jars to get the perfect dryness of the buds. I put a small rH meter in the jars. If the buds have less rH than 62%, I leave the jar open those days that have higher rH than 62%. Likewise, if a jar is showing the buds have a rH higher than 62%, I leave that jar open on drier days. Once I got my jars to near 62%, I only open them when I take some buds.
 
DonkeyDick said:
Does she have any idea how well you’ve done?
You’ll be able to weigh them soon and give her a compelling figure. 6 hundy an ounce for primo down our way.
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She did express surprise at the size of this year's plants compared to last years, but no, she doesn't have any idea. 6 hundy, wow, it's a while since I last had to buy, hopefully never again as it is reassuring knowing what's gone into your own buds. But that figure would be understandable in the current times. Geez, I have only just realized there would have been a lot of folk who would be doing outdoor remote grows and with the lockdown not be able to get to their remote crops to tend and harvest, that would be mega frigging disappointing.:smokin2:

Listersmeghead said:
Congratulations on a great harvest.
Growing outdoors for a whole season is hard enough, but to add in the stealth requirements has compelled what a truley inspiring outdoor grow you have completed. :adore::headbanger:
I've been lurking and have thoroughly enjoyed your adventure. Thank you.
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Thanks Listermeghead! I tried a few things that I hadn't done before this grow, still made mistakes but I have gained some good learnings from the experience too. Thanks for checking in! :thumb:
 
Nice job dude,
:woohoo:

I find it a nice sense of relief to sit back and look at the fruits of our labors. You never no what you'll get, if anything growing out doors.

Now plans for next summers grow? :laughtwo:

Let us know when you get her weighed up, and test tasted :smokin2:
 
Kodiak420 said:
Nice job dude,
:woohoo:

I find it a nice sense of relief to sit back and look at the fruits of our labors. You never no what you'll get, if anything growing out doors.

Now plans for next summers grow? :laughtwo:

Let us know when you get her weighed up, and test tasted :smokin2:
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Thanks Kodiak!

I always enjoying the view of the girls as they developed, and being able to sit close to them with a smile as I looked forward to this point. It's a relief to get there, but I also miss them.

I have some 420 strains that I haven't grown before as they arrived too late for this season that I'd like to kick off next time, either some or all of them, they are Chronic Widow, Californian Dream & Bergman's Gold Leaf. But soon I will re-amend the soil in my containers so I can give it a decent time to cook and settle in over winter before re-using next Spring.

I'll report back on the numbers where done, and whether I got any seeds from my selective pollination.

Cheers
 
Beautiful pics, beautiful plants, beautiful harvest! Well done all 'round Stunger. And you have reminded me to put BT spray in my shopping cart for the summer grow.
:thanks:
 
Stunger said:
...
I have some 420 strains that I haven't grown before as they arrived too late for this season that I'd like to kick off next time, either some or all of them, they are Chronic Widow, Californian Dream & Bergman's Gold Leaf. But soon I will re-amend the soil in my containers so I can give it a decent time to cook and settle in over winter before re-using next Spring.
...
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Stunger, I also ordered Bergman's Gold Leaf along with the GGA about three weeks ago. Maybe it will arrive before lockdown ends... we'll see. 420 sent an email telling me not to pester them with questions, so I haven't asked when my order will be shipped, I guess it takes them a long time to fill orders.

Thanks for the photos. You just had a great harvest, be well and enjoy!
 
Emeraldo said:
Hi Shed. Just following up on the use of neem oil + potassium soap as insecticide on cannabis. I do recognize the concern you mention, I guess it could be that neem oil residue on the bud might possibly be harmful when smoked. However, it does seem that there is no information about smoking weed that had been treated with that mixture over the growing season. Statistically, neem oil has been used by so many growers over the years, and no real problems have been reported. So it could well be there is no basis to say that smoking cannabis treated with neem is more harmful than weed grown without neem.

The link I posted before referred to health hazards of actually eating/consuming neem oil, and states that neem oil will break down and be disposed of by the body. Neem Oil General Fact Sheet Not harmful to humans, apparently, to actually consume neem oil. Also not harmful to bees and the environment. Harmful for fish, so you don't want to dump it into a lake or stream, according to that link. On balance, neem seems to be generally eco-friendly non-toxic.

I did find another link, in addition, discussing smoking cannabis that had been treated with neem, which simply says: no information because the studies have not been done. Ask a Stoner: What is Neem Oil, and How Does it Affect My Pot?

For me, I will continue to use it, avoiding the flowers, and trying to wash the bud at harvest.

Thanks for your input
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Hi @Emeraldo ! I've been doing loads of pest control research yesterday and today, and your name kept popping up on the forums for the types of keywords i was searching. I wanna get your thoughts on what you've used in the past as a preventative pest/bug control as well as what you've used to eradicate any infestations. Here are the things i'm considering using (not all at once, these are just options, and i'd like to get your thoughts):

- a foliar spray using pure Neem Oil & surgical soap (which contains Chlorhexidine Gluconate @ 4% concentration) in lieu of dish soap and neem oil.
- diatomaceous earth to use as a top dressing (mixed with perlite)
- Hydrogen Peroxide mixed with Neem Oil

Do you also add water to these sprays? How much of each thing do i add? Also... what type of prevention do you recommend during flower?
Thanks for any help you may have!
 
Hey Stunger, did you get a chance to try your newly harvested bud yet? My 420 seeds are officially in the mail, coming from San Diego should take only a few days.
 
briefbriefs said:
Hi @Emeraldo ! I've been doing loads of pest control research yesterday and today, and your name kept popping up on the forums for the types of keywords i was searching. I wanna get your thoughts on what you've used in the past as a preventative pest/bug control as well as what you've used to eradicate any infestations. Here are the things i'm considering using (not all at once, these are just options, and i'd like to get your thoughts):

- a foliar spray using pure Neem Oil & surgical soap (which contains Chlorhexidine Gluconate @ 4% concentration) in lieu of dish soap and neem oil.
- diatomaceous earth to use as a top dressing (mixed with perlite)
- Hydrogen Peroxide mixed with Neem Oil

Do you also add water to these sprays? How much of each thing do i add? Also... what type of prevention do you recommend during flower?
Thanks for any help you may have!
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briefbriefs, I've using neem mixed with water, to which I add a tbsp of surgical soap (also called potassium soap), I got it in a pharmacy. It's an old fashioned sterilizing soap and it kills insects, esp whitefly, aphids, etc. Am very pleased with the results in terms of keeping the pests away. I usually spray the whole plant every two weeks, drenching both sides of the leaves up until about the 5th week of flowering, and then thereafter limiting it to leaves only (avoiding buds) and stopping altogether three weeks before harvest. Didn't see many pests, though it isn't a 100% solution, but the presence of chewed leaves always told me to re-apply. It works.

In California this year I don't have that soap with me, so I bought a little bottle of Safer, which I assume will do the trick. I just followed the directions on the label. Here is also a photo of the particular neem product I found on amazon.

Diatomaceous earth is good for keeping out crawling insects and is also harmless to humans. I've not used hydrogen peroxide with neem, but I've heard some folks like to wash their newly harvested bud with that.

IMG_1639.jpeg

IMG_1639.jpeg

  • Media owner Emeraldo
  • Date added
 
Emeraldo said:
Hey Stunger, did you get a chance to try your newly harvested bud yet? My 420 seeds are officially in the mail, coming from San Diego should take only a few days.
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My plants are still hanging up to dry, probably another week or so, but I'll let you know when test them out. :hookah:
 
Comizz on the comp I was rooting for you. As far as I can tell yours were the biggest, most loved, most admired (because they were the most beautiful), most bafflingly stealthy balcony-grown outdoor plants in New Zealand this summer.
I hope they have a nice kick too.
 
DonkeyDick said:
Comizz on the comp I was rooting for you. As far as I can tell yours were the biggest, most loved, most admired (because they were the most beautiful), most bafflingly stealthy balcony-grown outdoor plants in New Zealand this summer.
I hope they have a nice kick too.
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Hey nice of you to say so DD! :thanks:

The plant turned out far better than I had expected, so it was a purely, why not stick it in to the comp. There were a lot of nice ones entered, I would have loved a bag of the winner's buds, they sounded really good. :ganjamon:

As for balcony stealth :hmmmm:
Hmmm.. Yep I did manage to train them pretty good and flat to the balcony rail. However, they did develop quite a dank smell which was not really stealthy. In the last weeks of flowering I could detect the dank smell coming into the house even when the balcony doors were closed! :nervous-guy:It wasn't that they were super dank smelling plants, but simply because there was a good pound of buds on those 3 plants (but I haven't trimmed and weighed them yet to verify). I have never had so much buds in front of me!

I was concerned that a neighbor might sell their house during my grow where the agent sticks a drone up to get some photos, if that had happened the plants would have stood out like a dog's bollocks. As it was, one day in early flowering my near neighbors got their roof cleaned. At some point in the day I had gone to open the balcony doors to do some bonding with the girls when I realized there were 3 guys standing on the neighbor's pitched roof, their heads were level with the canopy of the plants. They were within 20 feet of a sea of balcony buds that would have been visible to them except they were so focused on where they were spraying and not slipping on the steep pitch of the roof that they didn't see them. It would have made a good pic of the plants and them just feet away! But that's the fun and games of 'stealth' growing I guess.:slide:

So far in early testing I think they all have a good kick to them. It is new to me to have variety, so it is very interesting comparing back and forth. One of them seems a wonderful daytime smoke. But I need to test more with more space between the testing cycles, as in my enthusiasm I am getting a lot of 'evaluation blur'. :lot-o-toke: I will write a follow up soon when all trimmed and fully tested. Cheers.
 
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